R.I.P. Lily Munster

an excellent obit from www.unknownhighway.com


Good-bye, Lily Munster

It comes with much sadness that we report the passing of Yvonne de Carlo on January 8, screen siren of the 1940s and the legendary Lily Munster of the kooky 1960s. What a wonderful gal she was.


Lily's Final PlaceNow Lily Munster, a.k.a. Yvonne de Carlo, has "crossed over." Here is a good obit from Canada where she came from. She was born poor and died of old age (84) wealthy in a nice warm bed in a retirement home just for movie stars and movie people. The Motion Picture & Televison Country House and Hospital (MPTC) is a series of cottages where workers of film live and are watched over by hospital staff. Sounds like a very nice place to go. A lot of film stars lived and died there, including Gale Gordon of "The Lucy Show" among many other notable celebrities. Click here to see the facilities the MPTC offers, includes a small photo of the cottages. Yvonne de Carlo had class. And she went out with class. Yvonne de Carlo was well-respected by everyone she encountered. She got along with everyone she worked with, never acted like a whore or degraded herself in her public career, not like most of the female moron actresses of today. She was someone to be looked up to for her class and dignity. She worked very hard and gave her best, including her comedown role as the vampirish wife in "The Munsters" which ran for two years. She played the role with much camp and pomp. It would have continued, but the idiot TV execs decided they wanted to get rid of "novelty" shows such as The Munsters and The Adams Family, among other peculiar comedy shows such as "Mister Ed" (about a talking horse) of the time that have now become legendary. It's ratings were high at the time. And a color motion picture called "Munster Go Home" was released to theaters after The Munsters was cancelled in 1966, showing what The Munsters would have looked like had they gone on for a third year. Yvonne also was in the pilot of the famous "Bonanza," series entitled "A Letter to Lotta." Everyone, including me, remembers Yvonne as Lily Munster, but she was also famous for her sultry good looks in the 1940s era. She was in Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments" (1955) as Moses' wife, a role which became legendary as well. But Yvonne lived a good, long life and died of natural old age -- she died with dignity and was well-loved and admired by all.

The passing is another nail in the coffin for Baby Boomers such as me who are seeing all the icons of their time pop off the planet, leaving trashy new celebrities such as Britney Spears and Paris Hilton to fill the female celebrity void.